You and I Unselfed
by Kimmychu
Summary: In the aftermath of the bombing that almost kills Flack, Danny discovers what loss really means. DannyFlack.


**You and I Unselfed**

Fandom: CSI:NY

Author: Kimmychu

Rating: FRM (though, technically, the most explicit stuff is kissing)

Pairing: Danny/Flack

Content Warning: ANGST.

Spoilers: Episodes 1x21 (On the Job), 2x20 (Run Silent, Run Deep), 21 (All Access), 23 (Heroes) and 24 (Charge of this Post).

Summary: In the aftermath of the bombing that almost kills Flack, Danny discovers what loss really means. Danny/Flack.

Disclaimer: No, they don't belong to me. I shall go be all emo and write epic odes about it now.

**( Oooo …... oooO )**

Author's Notes: This is another story request from a reader who wanted a post-Charge of this Post story. Specifically, how Danny and Flack deal with Flack's injuries and resulting scars. You'll notice there are quite a number of episodes prior to the season two finale being refered to in the story. The reason is because I wanted to address some of those storylines that I felt the show never bothered to touch on later, which is a shame. I hope you'll enjoy the story, and thank you for all your reviews. I appreciate them!

**( Oooo …... oooO )**

The shadows of the Hudson river roils with ominous undulations before Danny's throbbing eyes.

He leans with his forearms on the steel railing bordering the edge of the river and the quiet, deserted promenade of Battery Park city. His head is bowed, shoulders hunched in his jacket. He stares into the black, murky depths, wondering if there're monsters lurking beneath the surface, watching him from the other side. The ridiculous thought of a terrifying sea beast with jagged teeth suddenly leaping out of the Hudson and eating him makes him want to laugh, except he can't even curl his lips up in a semblance of a smile.

His lower face is sore, hurting with the tension of keeping a straight face. Some part of his mind tells him that it's really important for him to do so, because if he doesn't, it won't be a pretty sight.

Nobody looks pretty when they cry.

His gaze shifts to his hands in front of him. He notices there's a smudge of dark brown under one fingernail and realizes with a shiver that it's a trace of Flack's blood. A tiny sliver that's still there, even after the multiple scrubbings of his hands that turned his skin red and raw.

Staring at it, he's instantly teleported back in time to the morning. He is darting through the ruins of imploded walls and shattered glass and broken steel, scrambling over the final wall that blocked his path. He sees Mac gaze up at him from a distance, all covered in dust and dirt, dazed but unharmed. Mac's bloody hands are pressing some balled-up cloth into the crimson cavern that was once Flack's smooth abdomen.

Flack is so ashen and grey and motionless. Like he's already dead.

Danny's fingernails dig into his palms.

The stinging warmth in his eyes turns his vision even more hazy.

His mind begins the same litany it's been repeating the whole day and night, the one that's no easier to believe now than this morning when that bomb exploded and almost killed Flack, the man he lov-

"He's alive, he's alive, _he's alive_."

Hearing his own hoarse voice whispering the words aloud this time doesn't make him feel any better. His fingers entwine in his brown hair, hands clenching into fists, pulling at the strands in an effort to distract himself from thinking about Flack sprawled on the ground like a corpse with his innards torn apart.

It doesn't work.

Danny's back there again, holding the cloth inside what's left of Flack's belly, uncaring of the warm blood soaking into the knees of his trousers as he kneels beside the wounded homicide detective. Touching Flack's cold cheek, something within his chest rending when there is no response from the unconscious man, not even a flicker of eyelids. Calling Flack's name over and over, ignoring the sharp, stunned stare Mac is aiming at him, too shocked in that moment to ruminate why the other CSI is looking at him like that.

It's a replay of the night he rushed to the hospital just in time to watch his bloodied, comatose brother being wheeled on a stretcher into the ER. There are hands grabbing at him, towing him away from Flack. He struggles violently against the arms locked around his chest and waist, teeth gritted, arms thrashing about. Somebody's yelling in rage and distress, and he thinks it's himself.

"Don's going to be _alright_, Danny, let them take care of him. _He's going to be alright_."

He hears Mac speaking with firm tones into his ear, and he wants to trust his boss and friend so badly, that Mac is telling him the truth, but Flack's blood covering his hands swamps his sight and turns it red and hot.

Danny jumps forward in time, and now he's standing with Stella outside the decimated building, watching Flack being loaded into an ambulance. He feels one of Stella's hands squeeze his shoulder, and it gives him much needed strength to maintain what's left of his composure. He's thankful Mac is the only one from his team who witnessed him flying headlong into a panic attack over Flack. He doesn't have a fucking clue where to begin explaining that to Mac alone, and he's sure Mac is going to talk to him about it sooner or later.

Something travels up his throat, something sour and thick and nasty. He mumbles incoherently under his breath to Stella before dashing away into a narrow alley nearby. Stumbles behind a grimy, green dumpster, and he bends over and throws up what's left of his breakfast on the concrete near his feet. The convulsions cause his eyes to tear up, his sides to ache. Seeing the dried blood all over his hands makes him retch for a while more.

Danny's mind fast forwards itself, and he's in the laboratory, staring downwards at the mangled pieces of what used to be a mobile phone, pieces that were embedded deep in Flack's stomach. He senses Lindsay shooting concerned glances his way, and he doesn't return them. He concentrates on investigating every detail those fragments can offer him, knowing that the faster he processes them, the more work he can do to hunt down the sonofabitch who set that bomb and injured Flack. He can't lose it, not yet.

He blinks, and he's at the hospital, peering through the glass wall at a sedated Flack who's lying on his back on the bed, his head turned slightly to the side. The sleeping man looks so alone in the room, with nothing more than a large digital screen that checked his vital signs above the bed to keep him company. Danny is already pondering what he'll say to inform everyone he's staying with Flack for the night. Then, he sees the glint in Mac's hazel eyes while the older man glances into Flack's room, and the words die in his mouth.

He blinks again, and now, he's in his car with Lindsay in front of her apartment building. She's just asked him to come up for a drink, waiting for his reply with an expectant gleam in her eyes. Half of Danny is amused at how easily Lindsay played along in his game, how easily she assumed that there's something more to him asking her if she wanted a ride home. The other half is a little sickened at himself for using her like this, to get away from the hospital, away from the sight of Flack looking as fragile as a porcelain statue before he cracked.

When she realizes his hesitation is an answer in itself, her face becomes shuttered. He gives her the usual excuse of having to go home and wash up and rest: _It's been a long day, there's a lot of work to be done tomorrow, I'm really tired, the man who owns my soul almost died today and so did I_.

Of course, he doesn't say the last one.

The disappointment emanates from her in tangible waves. She's good, though, good at hiding it from her facial expression. For all his teasing of her being a girl from the countryside, he can tell there's a darkness inside her that she doesn't want anyone to see, a secret so big it'll bring her world crashing down should it be exposed.

He knows exactly how it feels.

It is why he's where he is right now, a solitary figure by the river, with nowhere to go, no one to turn to, nobody who won't judge him for harboring a forbidden love for a man who's become as important as the air he breathes.

Danny sucks in a shaky breath, and thinks about his brother Louie instead. He reminisces on their childhood days when they fished here with their dad. It seems like it was just yesterday, and he can't comprehend how he and Louie went from being such close-knit siblings to complete strangers in less than a heartbeat. For a moment, he considers heading to Mount Sinai where Louie is being cared for then changes his mind. Seeing Louie in a deep coma, at death's door because of him, will merely serve to exacerbate his anguish.

He raises his head to gaze at the bright pinpricks of lights that delineate the buildings and skyscrapers on the opposite side of the river. For some reason, they remind him of Aiden. His brain dredges up an old albeit fond memory of her wearing a pair of gigantic, glittery ear rings to work one day. Flack is there in the break room with him, and the moment she walks in, Flack becomes the goofy detective and slaps hands over his eyes and hollers, "_Ahhh_, I'm _blind! _Somebody save me from the Ear Rings of _Doom!_"

Aiden proceeds to slap Flack on the arms and even his head after she manages to yank it down by twisting one of his ears with her fingers. It's a hilarious sight, Flack being manhandled like a doll by a feisty woman over a head shorter than him. He laughs along with them, slapping hands on the table in glee while Aiden attempts to clip on her ear rings onto Flack's earlobes in sweet revenge.

Danny swallows visibly.

The sleeved top she wore that day was of the same color as the cloth that'd been spread across the lid of her coffin.

Danny feels bile rising up his throat and all of a sudden, he's on the verge of vomiting once more. He unconsciously shifts a hand up to the base of his neck, wrapping his fingers around it. It doesn't really lessen his nausea although the motion itself steadies him a little.

His eyes flutter shut. He can still hear Flack and Aiden laughing together, their happy miens alit with amusement and affection. Aiden is stunning beneath the radiant sunlight cascading in through the windows, and Flack's blue eyes shine like sapphires. Those eyes are upon him, gazing at him with all the love in the universe.

And for the first time since he saw the shredded carnage that was Flack's torso, he reflects on an existence where he would never see those eyes looking at him ever again.

Something wet rolls down one of his cheeks, and then down the other.

Then, he senses more droplets of water falling on his head and shoulders and arms. Soon, they transform into a cold drizzle that swiftly drenches his shorn hair and jacket. Keeping his eyes shut, he lifts his head up high, letting the downpour sluice him, not bothered to search for shelter in his car parked close by. He welcomes it, in fact.

It's easy now. So easy, to lie to himself that the wetness streaming down his face is only the rain.

**( Oooo …... oooO )**

Flack's large eyes are glacial.

Cold and hard.

"Do ya want some coffee?" Danny asks in a hesitant manner, holding out the dark blue mug that belongs to Flack.

It seems like eons before the homicide detective, seated on the black couch, mutters a stilted, "No." The sound of his voice, along with his body posture, is jarringly unnatural. He's sitting ramrod straight, his legs bent at the knees, hands in loose fists on his thighs. Staring at the television set as if nothing else existed.

As if Danny isn't there at all.

For the fifth time that evening, Danny suppresses the urge to smash something to pieces. _No_, Flack got out of the hospital just _days_ ago, he thinks to himself, _stop it_.

"Fine."

The word flies out of Danny's mouth with razor sharpness. It bounces off Flack like a tiny rubber band would off a gigantic rock.

Unfelt. Insignificant.

And the indifference cuts another deep gash inside Danny's chest, joining a multitude of others that have been there since the recuperating homicide detective was discharged. Flack has always been notorious for his sharp tongue.

Who knew that his silence is equally lethal?

Danny strides into the kitchen, his fingers clamped tight around the mug. It's a good thing that it's made of sturdy ceramic, for had it been glass, it would have shattered in his grasp long ago. He knows he's letting his temper get the better of him again as he slams the mug on the kitchen's counter top. He knows he shouldn't get mad at Flack for behaving the way he is, he knows his friend and lover's going through a rough period but _fuck it_, he's getting _tired_ of being treated like nothing more than _dirt_.

In a corner of the kitchen, furthest away from the entrance and concealed from Flack's sight, he slumps back against the unyielding door of the refrigerator, removing his spectacles with one hand and rubbing at his weary, blue eyes with the other. The black tank top he wears does little to warm him from the cool surface of the fridge. It doesn't matter.

He hasn't felt warm for a long time.

Not since Flack flung up this immense wall between them, this unclimable mountain of harsh glares and slicing silences and averted faces.

There is no sound in the whole apartment apart from the noises emanating from Flack's television. A comedy show, probably; Danny can hear the raucous sound of an invisible audience laughing at some clichéd funny moment or another.

Flack isn't laughing along.

Danny lets his head fall back, hearing more than feeling the thud of the back of his head on the freezer door. His neck is bared, arched in a pose of capitulation. He closes his eyes, and if he reminisces fervently enough, he can feel the ghostly flutters of Flack's lips upon the skin there, kissing and nipping their way down to his heaving chest. Sense Flack's large hands caress his lower back and abdomen, playing him like a guitar in a master's hands, making his flushed body writhe and undulate against the refridgerator, making him cry out as a hot mouth envelops him whole -

A boisterous, gravelly laugh jolts him out of his daydream, and he's back in Flack's kitchen. Alone. Hiding from the man he loves but no longer knows.

A minute ticks by before Danny realizes the laugh came from the television, that Flack is as quiet as ever and this unnerves him to the point he's sliding down to sit on the floor, enervated. He feels disoriented, as if he's on a small boat in the middle of some massive ocean, with no paddles and seeing nothing except blue everywhere. Licking at dry lips, he draws up his knees and wraps his arms around his shins, one hand holding his glasses. He fights the compulsion to rock back and forth.

It doesn't make sense, he thinks with an unhappy scowl. Things should have gotten _better_ once Flack came home from the hospital. His best friend, his lover had survived. Flack made it through. _Alive_. They should be embracing and kissing and smiling and saying how much they loved one another. How _lucky_ they are to have another chance to stay together, no matter how fucked up the world may be.

Not … _this_.

Danny rests his forehead on his knees, releasing a soft, resigned sigh. Sure, he expected Flack to be fatigued and grouchy and in need of a lot more convalescence before he returns to work, but not this silent treatment bullcrap. Not this _I-don't-need-you-around-Messer-so-fuck-off _behavior. And definitely, _definitely_ not Flack flinching away from him every time he gets within inches of the man.

He hasn't been able to touch Flack at all since the day the homicide detective awakened from his light coma.

And even then, Flack had pulled away from him.

That had hurt terribly, more than the time he shattered his right wrist and forever lost his dream of becoming a baseball player in the leagues.

It still does.

He grits his teeth.

Did he do something wrong? What did he do to make Flack … _hate_ him so much like this?

He sits upright, propping himself on the fridge door again. His brain reruns that instant Flack had opened his eyes. The recuperating homicide detective was sound asleep with Mac sitting beside the bed when he entered the room. Mac, who'd remained with the man throughout the night, went back to his apartment to freshen up since Danny was now there to keep Flack company. So, he'd been alone with Flack in the hospital room when Flack opened his eyes, he remembers that much. No one had been anywhere near them, not even a nurse. Which is why he doesn't get it, why Flack had been so happy to see him and grabbed his hand and then … _cringed_ from him with all that _anger_ in those blue eyes.

Maybe Flack's upset with him for not having been there when the explosion occurred. No, _no_, that wasn't like his lover at all. Knowing how protective Flack is - or _was_ - of him, Flack would have gone on a murderous rampage across the city hunting down the maniac who planted the bomb, should it had been _him_ who was injured instead. Hell, even if Flack had been wounded too, the guy would have run amok anyway.

He doesn't _get_ it.

Danny finally gave in to the urge to rock his body and did so, appearing very much like a little boy whose guiding light has vanished.

God, what did he _do?_

He has to know, he has to fucking _know_ so he can fix this _thing_ between them or he's going to tumble over the edge of that cliff in his mind that he swore he'd never go again and stay totally crazy for the rest of his life.

He forms a scornful sound aimed at himself.

Without Flack, he has no life.

"Eat my shorts, suckers!"

For the second time that night, he's jerked out of his perturbed cogitations by the television. He glances up and through the window above the sink to his right of the kitchen. It's gone dark, the night never really night for New York city is the city of lights, the city that never sleeps. He's feeling really chilly now, goosebumps popping up all over his arms and his toes curling inward in his shoes. He pushes himself up onto his feet with the lassitude of a man decades older, then places his spectacles back onto his face and ears.

He loves Flack, he always will but there's only so much he can take and he's _tired_.

He shuffles into the living room to the couch where Flack is sitting while he still has his nerves. The taller man hasn't moved at all, sitting there like he's carved out of granite, unmovable and _frozen_.

Danny's hands clench painfully.

_It's now or never_, he tells himself.

He stretches out a hand towards Flack's shoulder, a slow movement that's well within the man's sight.

Flack's eyes don't glance away from the television. His mouth doesn't open to utter anything.

His evident recoil from Danny's hand, however, says a thousand words.

And Danny feels every single one like a punch to his chest.

"Ya know _what? _If ya don't want me to stick 'round, all ya had to do was _say_ somethin'," Danny grinds out, eyes burning. "Ya _hear_ me, _huh_, Don?"

Flack is silent. The guy doesn't even blink.

Something cracks and splinters within Danny.

"_Fuck_ this," he says in a voice he hopes doesn't sound broken. "_Fuck all this_, I got _better _things to do than _this_."

He spins around and storms up to coffee table nearby and snatches his jacket off the back of one of the chairs there. It's a damn good thing he knows Flack's apartment so well, because for some reason, his glasses decided to go all blurry on him and now he can't see a fucking thing.

His heavy, furious treads reverberate in the air and in the floor under him. His breaths sound harsh in his own ears. Even as he's wrenching the front door open and stomping out into the hallway, there's a voice in his head shouting at him that he's making a huge mistake, that he should turn around before it's too late.

He doesn't listen, and he keeps going down the corridor to the elevator, taking out his despair with fists on the elevator buttons and the wall around it.

He doesn't listen, but if he had, he would have seen Flack reaching out for him with both hands, pallid visage contorted in fear and anguish and pain for hurting the one who loves him still.

**( Oooo …... oooO )**

Stella is wearing a low-cut, light magenta top.

That's all Danny's brain registers before he hears her say, "Danny. Take a deep breath."

He blinks at her, eyes wide behind his black-framed spectacles. _Huh?_

"Danny, you look like you're about to keel over. _Breathe_."

He blinks again, then lets out a breath he hadn't even known he was holding all this time. After inhaling deeply as Stella requested, he does feel less light-headed.

Stella's gazing at him with that perceptive look of hers, and he glances down at the black pen in his right hand, its pointed tip hovering over a notepad on the table in front of him.

The white paper of the notepad is blank.

Just like him.

"Is everything alright?" Stella asks softly.

He sucks in his lower lip. Damnit, she's using that maternal-like tone, which means she suspects something's up with him.

"Yeah, 'course everythin's fine," he answers in a flippant tone. He straightens up in his seat and shrugs his shoulders, scarcely able to cover his wince from the aches in his tense shoulders and the shooting pain that travels up his neck into his skull. _Great_, his stupid headache is back. Where the hell's aspirin when he needs it?

Stella doesn't reply.

In his books, that's a bad thing because it indicates she knows he's bullshitting her.

Which is true.

Danny chuckles mirthlessly. The sound is odd even to himself.

"Look, I'm _fine_. Really."

A second after he says that, the room abruptly spins around him like some insane joyride in a horror flick. It's bad enough that he scrunches his eyes shut and stops breathing and clings to the table edge with desperate hands.

Oh. So that's why he's been holding his breath over and over the whole afternoon.

"_Danny?_"

The worry in Stella's voice prompts him to open his eyes. It seems to take all his energy to relax and let go of the table and just not throw up in front of his fellow CSI.

He looks into Stella's concerned eyes, and he wants to tell her how brilliant and green they are. Then, he blinks a few more times. Strange. There are _two_ Stellas standing in front of him now.

"Danny. When was the last time you slept?"

The twin Stellas return to being one person.

He stares at her, and ties the figurative rope around his own neck with a subdued, "Slept?"

There's a pause, then Stella asks, "Have you eaten anything at _all_ today?"

Without warning, ire flares up inside him. His eyebrows lower in an intense frown and he glares at Stella, unaware that the heated look is completely mitigated by the perceptible trembling of his hands. What the hell's she asking all these _questions _for? Is he some little _kid _who doesn't know how to take care of himself -

Any other thought that passes through his mind goes up in a puff of smoke when an excruciating zigzag of agony rips his brain.

This time, there's no way he's able to veil the wince that twists his features.

_Fuck_. That _hurt_.

A whole eon passes, and his eyes eventually flutter open to see Stella with a glass of water. She's closing the door to the laboratory and locking it, and his brows furrow in bafflement. That's funny, he doesn't remember her leaving the room. Then again, he doesn't remember how he ended up with his head resting askew on his arms on the table top either.

"C'mon, nice and slow."

Slender albeit strong arms go around his torso, helping him up to a sitting position. He keeps his eyes slitted. The room's spinning around and around and around again, and he _really_ feels like upchucking the contents of his stomach.

Well, if there's actually anything inside to throw up in the first place.

Little round pills fall onto the palm of his hand.

"Aspirin."

_Thank you, Stella, you're a lifesaver._

The nausea prevents him from speaking, so he shows his gratitude with a simple nod and pops the pills into his mouth, swallowing them down with water from the glass Stella hands him.

When he's finished the water, his gaze is trained on the empty glass in his grasp. He doesn't have to look up to know Stella's staring at him now, with her _no-more-lies-young-man _stare. He bites his lower lip.

There's a slight creak as she sits on a chair next to his.

"When was the last time you ate something?"

Oh God, it's not her stern voice. It's her kind one, the compassionate one that makes his legs wobbly and his throat choke up like an enormous sob is obstructing it.

"Dunno," he mutters.

He continues to stare downwards at the glass, seeing himself mirrored in the transparent, shiny object. He looks like crap, even in a tiny, warped reflection. His hair's a matted mess of spikes. He's wan and there are bags under his eyes and his lips are downturned in a livid, inverted U. His entire face is a mass of miserable lines that are begging to be erased.

No wonder Stella doesn't dare to touch him.

No wonder Flack doesn't want to touch him anymore.

"Tell me you've eaten _something_ in the last forty-eight hours."

He feels like weeping at the imploring tone of Stella's voice. It's not her who should be pleading, not by a long shot.

He attempts to lie, just this once, by nodding but his damn head won't cooperate with him.

It moves sharply from side to side once. Like an angry snap.

He won't look at Stella. He just _knows_ she's not happy at all with his reply. The blockage in his throat's a lot bigger now.

"Danny."

She takes the glass out of his hands, and the mere touch of her fingers is enough to send him teetering on that edge between maintaining his calm façade and losing it big time with tears and an achy chest.

"Tell me what's wrong … I'm always here to listen, you know that."

Her words are like shoves on his back, pushing him forward the last few steps onto the brink.

But it is her hands, enveloping and holding his with such gentleness and care that hurls him down, and breaks him.

It's only when his head is tucked beneath Stella's chin, when his face is nestled into the warmth of her neck, when he senses hot wetness trailing down his cheeks that it dawns on him just how far he's fallen. It's weird how detached he feels from himself right now. Half of him is berating himself for crying like a pathetic baby in front of Stella, and at _work_ too. The other half quietly reminds him of the time he'd broken down and wept in front of Mac, after his brother had been hospitalized. Mac had simply taken him into a benevolent embrace, sustaining him when he couldn't stand on his own yet. He'd been worried sick that getting so emotional in front of Mac, his _boss_, like that had somehow compromised Mac's opinion of him.

He was wrong. Mac never respected him any less for it, nor treated him as less of a man.

Neither will Stella.

With that revelation in his thoughts, Danny allows the walls surrounding him to crumble to dust at last, opening himself to Stella's mercy.

She's stroking his hair, an arm snug and comforting around his shaking shoulders while she murmurs small words of solace. Her touch is a welcomed balm to his sorrow. It soothes him quickly, and it takes an enormous effort to not think about another detective holding him the same way, a man who rushed into a decimated building and came out an utterly different person.

_Who are you_, he wishes to ask the man who now bears Flack's visage, _where's the man I know, the man I knew?_

He wonders, as his sobs recede and his worn-out body becomes motionless, whether Stella has the answer to that question.

"I feel like such a jerk," Danny croaks, lips curled up in a joyless smile. His sore, wet eyes are half-lidded, staring in a daze at his glasses that have been left on the table at an arm's length. He doesn't recall taking them off.

He senses Stella's warm lips on his temple, moving into a kind smile as she says, "For what? For being _human?_"

For the first time in a long while, Danny huffs out a genuine cackle. It sounds gravelly and a lot less vigorous than it usually is, but it's a laugh nonetheless.

He sighs, breathing in her pleasant scent, taking rare pleasure from her relaxing caresses. Oh, how he'd missed such touches of affection. From _anyone_.

"It's okay to cry," Stella murmurs in a voice that sounds suspiciously as hoarse as his. "We're all just human … we're not meant to contain so much pain inside us."

She squeezes his shoulders.

"It's okay to cry, Danny. You've been through a _lot _in the past few months, it's _okay_."

He remains silent. He's very appreciative that Stella doesn't elaborate on precisely what he's gone through. He has his guilt and nightmares that will never him forget, day and night. As much as he fights it, uninvited memories are summoned to the forefront of his mind.

Louie. His sole brother, lying in a hospital bed with tubes stuck in him everywhere. Beaten to a bloody pulp by the Tanglewood Boys because he betrayed his fellow gang members to spare Danny a life in prison. His only brother, who never stopped loving him, hanging by a thread because of him.

Aiden. One of the best friends he ever had. Beautiful, fierce Aiden. He'd loved her dearly though he told her that more often in playful, snarky action than in words. He keeps a photograph of her in his bedside table, in the upper drawer where he can easily reach for it. The portrait helps him to remember what she looked like, before a serial rapist killed her and burned her into an unrecognizable skeleton.

And … Flack.

The one who hurts him the most.

"Do you want to talk?" Stella says. She's rubbing circles across his back, and he quietly enjoys the contact before he gives her a diminutive shake of his head in a negative.

In truth, he wants to talk, he _aches_ to, except … how does he tell Stella about his intimate relationship with Flack? How does he tell her how much he loves the man, and how frightened he is that Flack might have truly died in the bomb explosion, that this other Flack who came back from the hospital is a complete stranger to him?

How does he tell her about Flack flinging his dinner at the kitchen wall, smashing plate and tile, screaming in rage and scaring Danny in a way no armed gunman could? How does he explain that the mere thought of food now makes him queasy thanks to that incident?

How does he tell her that this Flack he does not know treats him as if he doesn't exist?

And how does he tell her, how much that tears him apart?

Sometimes, there are no words for such torment.

"Don't like shrinks, huh?"

With much reluctance, Danny shifts up and out of Stella's hug so he can look her in the eyes, and sees a twinkle in them. However, he's also conscious of the somber edge to her inquiry. She's inferring to him not having kept any of his appointments with the department psychiatrist, appointments he's put off long before the bomb explosion transpired. Dr. Bayles must be harping like crazy on Mac now for Stella to prod him about it.

Yep, everybody knows he _hates_ seeing the shrink. Who _doesn't_ hate that?

"No point in seeing the shrink," he says, his voice guttural. "She just asks dumb questions and thinks she already know all the answers. And she _doesn't_."

All of a sudden, Danny freezes.

Shit. What happens if Stella decides to tell Mac about his breakdown today? What if _Dr. Bayles _finds out about it?

Shitshit_shit_.

"_Danny_." She's gripping his hands again. "Whatever you want to tell me, it'll stay between us, in this room. Okay?"

He gives her a piercing look, studying her face.

There's something in her expression, _something_ -

Oh God.

His breath hitches.

_Oh God_, she _knows_.

"It stays between us. _I promise_."

His throat's all clogged up again, and he coughs to unblock it. He hangs his head low in defeat.

In a rough whisper, he says, "You know about - you _know_ … don't you?"

He prepares for the inevitable lashing, the mockery and the disdain. Head still bowed and his hands clamped together, taut with tension. At worst, Stella will think him disgusting now, an abhorrence who has no place in the CSI laboratory or the police force. At best, Stella will accept him regardless, and carry on being his co-worker and friend.

The thing is, Danny's really pessimistic today and he convinces himself, _yeah_, life's gonna yank the carpet from under him again, so what's new?

He waits for Stella to tug away her hands.

And she doesn't.

"Mac told me what happened when you found him and Flack after the bombing."

Danny closes his eyes. _Fuck_. Mac is _so_ going to confront him sooner or later about his freak out over Flack. Just thinking about it sends shivers up his spine.

"He's worried about you, Danny, and so am I." She falls silent for a second. "He has his suspicions, but he isn't sure."

_Not like you are now, Stella_, he thinks morosely.

_Triple_ fuck.

He stares down at their entwined hands, at the glossiness of Stella's painted nails and the faint, bluish veins beneath fine skin. There are tiny scars all over and around her fingers, a lighter color than her skin and tricky to detect unless he squinted. Scars, like little cuts made with a razor.

After some time, he mumbles, "Are ya gonna tell him?"

"It's not my choice, Danny, and even if it was, I'd still leave it up to you whether to tell him or not," Stella replies tenderly. "You think he'll fire you over this, don't you?"

He lifted his head, and finds it so difficult to believe the benevolence he sees in her eyes and mien. All hope is not lost, after all.

"Why _wouldn't _he, Stell? Relationships between co-workers' already 'gainst the rules. Whaddaya think he's gonna do when he finds out I'm in a relationship with another _guy?_"

Stella's gorgeous face crinkles in a understated smile. "If you think that's the case, you don't know Mac as well as you think you do."

_Please, Stella, don't bring my hopes up like this._

"So he - he doesn't _know_, right?" Danny says.

"If he does, he's hiding it really well." She pats his hands twice. "It's been a month since the explosion now. Think about it. Do you _really_ think Mac would take _this_ long to fire you? Over a _personal_ relationship that has _nothing_ to do with the labs?"

His blue eyes widen. He never thought about the situation from that particular angle.

"But … it's _Flack_."

He only half-expected the world to end with his verbal acknowledgement of his relationship with the homicide detective, and feels shocked nonetheless when it doesn't.

Stella doesn't bat an eyelid.

"And?" she replies with an amused smirk.

All at once, he feels absurdly silly for being so worried and apprehensive about everything.

It's unbelievable. Stella's _okay_ with his relationship with Flack.

He's stunned speechless.

"Listen to me," Stella says with warm, accepting eyes. "I can't speak for the others, but I can tell you this: it doesn't matter to me or disturb me that you're both men in a relationship. There are a _hell_ lot more things out there to be worried about, Danny, you and I know that. What's important to me is that everything's alright between you two, that you're okay working together while being in a relationship." She shrugs. "What you guys do outside of work is your own business, and rightfully so."

Her honest admission does something astounding to his heart.

"Thank you," he rasps in her direction. It's hard to say it to her face. He can barely distinguish her as more than a colorful blob through watery eyes as it is.

He feels her stroking the side of his face.

"This has really been eating at you, hasn't it?"

He merely nods, takes a deep breath then blinks numerous times to clear his vision. Describing how he feels as being eaten from the inside out by fear of rejection is one damn understatement. Losing his job is the _least_ of his worries if his secret ever becomes public knowledge.

There's a sudden solemnity to her countenance that causes him to scrutinize her features.

A few minutes of peaceful silence passes, and Danny waits patiently, realizing that Stella is mustering her thoughts in preparation to divulge something close to heart.

"You know, when Frankie broke into my apartment and held me hostage, I couldn't believe it was happening to me," she begins.

It's Danny's turn to squeeze her hands in encouragement. This is the first time she's ever spoken to him about her harrowing experience involving her lunatic ex-boyfriend who very nearly murdered her in her own home.

"It was - it was like a dream. A _nightmare_. The man I thought I loved, the man I thought who _loved_ me was going to _kill _me. I couldn't believe it … not even after I cut my hands bloody to free myself from the ropes he'd tied me with. Not even after I shot him dead with my own gun."

She's gazing into the distance, back in a place where there'd been no angels to save her.

"And it was all over so fast, as if it never happened. When all the questioning was done and I was discharged from the hospital and I returned to my apartment, I thought everything would be fine again. Back to work, business as usual."

She shakes her head, her green eyes cheerless.

"I was wrong. I thought, with my - my work experience and _training_ that it would be easy to leave it all behind but I was wrong. Much as I wanted to deny it, what he did to me … changed me. I felt … _lost_. Like something was taken away from me, something _vital_."

Stella purses her lips.

"He made me fear again."

Danny has no idea what to say, and stays quiet, giving her all the time she needs. The mention of Frankie jogs his memory of Flack coming over to his apartment the night the homicide detective had interviewed Stella at the hospital. Flack had been so infuriated that night, infuriated at Frankie who was dead and couldn't be killed a second time, infuriated that someone he cared about had been hurt in one of the worst possible ways.

Infuriated, and hugging Danny so tight and whispering gratitude that it wasn't Danny who'd been made to suffer like that.

"I thought if I didn't think about it, didn't _talk_ about it, then it would be like none of it ever happened. Then things would go back to the way they used to be … then _I'd_ go back to the person I used to be. The problem was, no matter where I went, everything reminded me about what happened. If I was in the labs, I met people who _knew_ what happened to me, and made me remember just by _looking_ at me with sympathy. And if I was at home … sometimes I'd jump at the tiniest of noises. Sometimes, I can still remember the exact position of his body on the floor after I shot him."

A heavy sigh leaves her in a rush.

"It angered me, and it also frightened me, knowing that it wouldn't let me go, that _I_ couldn't let it go and when I was at the end of my ropes, I seeked help. It took a while but I succeeded in overcoming it, with a lot of patience and understanding … especially on Mac's behalf." She smiles a smile that's both melancholic and relieved. "I don't know what I would have done without him."

As he listens to Stella, it dawns upon Danny what she's been trying to tell him, _really_ tell him.

"Ya think Flack's goin' through the same thing," he says.

"Well, I visited him a few days ago, and his behavior reminded me a lot of myself while I was still recovering from the attack. Angry. Vulnerable. Frustrated … I can only imagine how such serious injury to his abdomen, including the scarring, will affect him in the long run."

Danny's visage darkens in a scowl.

Stella isn't the only one who has to imagine what Flack's scars are like. He can barely get near the guy, much less see Flack naked from the waist up to view the aftermath of the explosion upon his lover's body.

He sure knows what it's like to be the one who's distrusted now.

"It takes time, Danny," Stella murmurs. "Right now, he might be acting like the biggest asshole in the world and it's like he's become somebody else but, this is the time when he needs you the most. It'll be okay. Things _will_ get better."

Her face unexpectedly flushes.

"Feel free to let me know if I'm assuming too much about you and Flack, okay?"

Danny's pearly teeth show through a sideways smile.

"Nah, I think you're assumin' too _little_."

"Like … I'm thinking you two are on second base, and you're already on the _tenth_ one?"

"Stella, there's no such thing as tenth base," he replies with a chuckle.

"I know." She grins. "And I didn't hear about a CSI getting together with a homicide detective, okay?"

He gazes at her striking facial features, and for a short while, he feels envious of the lucky bastard who'll become her significant half someday. It's rare, very rare, to come across someone who's beautiful on the outside _and _on the inside.

His lips bow up in a soft smile.

"Okay."

And once more, her arms move around his shoulders in a heartening embrace, a powerful conduit that gifts him with the strength and courage he'll need to tackle the challenging days ahead.

**( Oooo …... oooO )**

It's a sunny, late afternoon a couple of days later when Mac saunters up to him and asks, "Would you like a ride back? I'm free to drive you home, if you like."

Danny's stumped by this unforeseen offer from the older, hazel-eyed detective. Mac has never asked Danny to hitch a ride with him, except whenever they're partnered up to work on the same case and have to travel together during their investigations.

He stares at Mac for a moment, then comprehends that Mac isn't asking so much as _requesting_ him to permit Mac to drive him back to his apartment.

Ah.

It was just a matter of time until the Talk with Mac came to be.

Mac's SUV is nice, big car, a black, fourth-generation Ford Explorer with camel-colored interiors and ample leg room. Despite his misgivings about the inevitable discussion with Mac, he loosens up while sitting in the front passenger seat, setting his bag on his lap. It's a pleasant change to be driven home for once. The hassle of going home via the trains and walking does irritate him now and then.

They're already heading down towards Queens in the typical city traffic as Mac says, "You did good work on the Callahan case, Danny."

For the second time that afternoon, he's taken aback.

Huh, the last time Mac said anything along the same line was … he can't recall.

"Thanks."

Danny's uncertain of what else to say. He has the hunch Mac's simply using that as a preface to a much more grave conversation. It feels good to hear the compliment coming from Mac, at any rate.

The car halts at a traffic light, and he swivels his head to look at the other man. Mac is straight-faced, revealing no clue at all what he's thinking or feeling. Mac's clutching the steering wheel with one hand, but the hand is lax. That's a good sign to Danny. Mac might own the ultimate poker face, but Danny's known him long enough to discern the man's mood by examining his hands.

Whenever Mac's mad about something, his hands are always clenched, knuckles white like he wants to punch something.

Right now, Mac's hands are relaxed, and that lets Danny relax too.

"You've always done good work," Mac adds, moving the car forward once the traffic light has changed to green. "Did I ever mention to you that I picked you out of over a _thousand_ prospective graduates?"

Danny's unable to tear his gaze away from the other CSI's face.

What the … Mac praised him _twice_. In _one _day.

Has he tripped into the Twilight Zone or something?

"N-no, you didn't," Danny replies with a muted voice. "I didn't know that."

Mac abruptly sighs, and his brows crease in a way Danny's very familiar with.

"After the Minhaus case, when you were in my office … I shouldn't have said the things I did," Mac says.

Danny's belly contracts upon hearing the name of the undercover detective who'd died in a subway shooting in which he was implicated. The few days following the event had been some of the worst of his life. Had him feeling like he'd been fed to the wolves, feeling like the whole freaking world was out to bring him down, feeling like nobody gave a shit about him.

Except he had Flack.

He had Flack, when he couldn't turn to anyone else. He had Flack, who bore his frustrations and alarm with enduring patience and depth. He had Flack, who'd dragged him out of Sullivan's before he made an utter fool out of himself. Dragged him home and let him shout and roar and destroy things till he collapsed, face and heart crushed at the fact that he was right, he was _right_ all along that Mac would regret giving him a chance one day, that Mac would be disappointed in him, that he never wanted to fail Mac and he did it anyway.

And now, here's Mac, _apologizing_ to him for words he'd said more than a year ago.

"It's true that there had been people who'd discouraged me from hiring you, but you didn't deserve to have that thrown into your face, especially given the circumstances then. I was out of line, and I'm sorry about that."

_Whoa_ is all Danny's joggled mind can scour up. Listening to Mac saying sorry to him in his head is one thing. Listening to Mac saying sorry to him in reality is something else, _seriously_ something else..

"S'okay, Mac, really," Danny answers after he's snapped out of his shock. "Put it behind me ages ago."

A small, astute smile that seems almost sad appears on Mac's mien, one that compels Danny to finally look away and forward through the windscreen instead.

It's tough to bullshit somebody who's spent decades of his life unearthing the lies and deceit of criminals of all ages and gender.

Mac dumbfounds him yet again by veering into a different topic with, "I won't strangle you for asking me for a few days off, you know."

Danny blinks.

"While I appreciate you putting so much time and effort into your work, working _eighteen-hour _shifts for consecutive _weeks_ is seriously overzealous, even for me," Mac explains, a tiny smirk on his lips. "I think you've already maxed out your overtime _months_ ago."

Danny shrugs.

"Work keeps me sharp," he murmurs, eyes downcast.

Geez, Mac'd have to be _deaf _to not hear the fib.

"Not if you work yourself to death, Danny. You used to _complain_ whenever you had to take on long shifts."

Oh yeah, he knew what the older detective was hinting at.

He fidgets in his seat, pulling his bag closer to his torso.

"Thought you'd be _happy_ at the idea of more work being done at the labs, cases gettin' solved faster and all that."

"I _am_ happy when everyone's doing their best. On the other hand, I'm _not_ happy when I know that someone under my charge is … having problems."

Danny's fingers dig into the pliable material of his bag.

_Oh shit, here it comes _-

"Danny, what happened that day -"

"_Look_, I was in _shock_, okay?" Danny cuts in swift, his voice unintentionally a little too harsh. "I just freaked out after I saw all that - that _blood_. _That's it_."

If Mac had overlooked his first and second lie, the man doesn't do the same for this one.

"Is it really?"

The gentle tone, so unanticipated, forces something to fracture like glass within Danny. His exasperation triumphs over him.

"If ya got somethin' to say 'bout it, Mac, just say it. _Right now_," he articulates very clearly.

He continues to look out the windscreen in front of his face, for he has no inclination to see Mac's face once the guy says what he's going to say about him and Flack.

He senses Mac casting a long, hard albeit benign stare upon him.

His throat ripples in a nervous swallow.

Damnit, five years of working for the man, and he's still reduced to sweaty palms and quivering innards from a _stare_.

"One, if I were to object to your relationship with him, I'd be a hypocrite," Mac says quietly after what seems like a millennia.

Danny pivots his head sideways so quick, his neck emits an audible crack.

And his blue eyes widen at the sight of Mac's smile, a smile that's amused and … understanding.

Holy shit, Danny thinks, holy _shit_, is Mac implying what he _thinks_ he is?

Mac doesn't comment on his sagging lower jaw, which is a positive thing since he's probably looking like an idiot with his mouth all wide open like that and his eyes about to drop out.

"Two, who you're seeing outside of work is nobody's business but yours. The only time it _will_ become my business is when it affects your work performance." Mac's lips thin in a concerned line. "Like it has for the past few weeks."

Danny's automatic instinct is to contradict Mac's statement, that he's fine and that he can deal with things.

All it takes is one eloquent look from Mac for that impulse to shrivel.

He'd be a _dumbass_ to lie to Mac's face now.

He closes his eyes and turns his head towards the passenger side window, staring out through half-lidded eyes. Startles a bit as he notices they're already parked outside his apartment building. Well, that'd been one speedy ride.

"I dunno what ya want me to say, Mac," he murmurs in a small voice.

The hush that follows is neither wracked with tension or easy and comfortable. It's one of those silences where both parties are wavering on the verge between a stalemate and a checkmate. One man has all the power in his hands but isn't using it, and the other, a man who judges himself with nothing left to lose, awaits those same hands to yank the handle on the guillotine that'll cut off his head.

Danny waits, and has to stop himself from jumping off his seat when Mac asks, "Would you like to hear a story?"

He returns his gaze to Mac's visage, seeing no displeasure or anything similar to that in the other man's expression. Huh, Mac sure is full of surprises today. He gives the older detective a nod. Whatever the guy's desiring to tell him, it has to be important one way or another.

Without hesitation, Mac says, "A long time ago in ancient China, a great war had broken out. It was a war that spanned for many years and claimed the lives of many, many soldiers, and the wife of one soldier was dearly missing her husband who'd gone away to fight in this war. Unlike all the men who perished, her husband was fortunate enough to survive and once the war was over, he returned home."

"She was overjoyed that the man she loved was back at her side again, although, as the days passed, she discovered that her husband was no longer the man she knew before. He was filled with terrible fury and flew into a rage at the smallest of things. He wouldn't talk to her or let her touch him, and many a time, she would find him sitting alone, staring out the window with dismal eyes."

"The war had changed her husband, she understood that much, but she had no idea how to reach out to him or help him. One day, she heard about a wise, old hermit who lived on a hill, and went to see him in the hopes of solving her dilemma. After she told him her troubles, he simply said, 'Go, bring me a whisker from a living, wild tiger, and I will give you the answer you are searching for.'"

Danny's mouth opens in an 'O' shape.

"A _live_ tiger?"

"Uh hmm," Mac replies, eyes twinkling. "She probably looked just like you do now … And indeed, she was shocked at the wise, old man's demand. How was she going to accomplish such a deed? She was no soldier like her husband. She had no experience whatsoever in defending herself with weapons, much less approach a very lethal, wild animal that could kill her with a single swipe of a paw."

"But, despite the risk …" - Mac held up one finger to emphasize the point - "She _knew_ that she had to do it because she loved her husband, that it hurt her to see him suffer the way he was. Throughout that night, she devised a plan to do what the wise hermit wanted of her, and in the morning, she immediately headed into the forest to hunt a tiger."

"After many hours, she came upon one, an enormous tiger with sleek fur and round, topaz eyes. She made sure that she was far away enough that she could flee should the tiger attack her, but also close enough that the tiger could see her. When the tiger _did_ see her, she knelt on the ground to make herself appear unthreatening, and spoke to the animal with kind words and a gentle voice."

"She did this everyday, earning the tiger's trust little by little, and in time, the tiger became accustomed to her presence. The next time she went to see it, she brought along food to feed it. She would leave the food at a distance and watch the tiger eat it, all the while speaking to it with kindness and tenderness, showing the tiger love and care, that she wished no harm upon it at all."

"Then, one morning, she gathered the courage to leave food right in front of her so that the tiger will come close enough for her to take a whisker from it. Sure enough, when the tiger saw her, it came up to her and consumed its meal, paying no heed to her nor menacing her in any way. And as the tiger ate and she spoke gently to it like she always did …"

Mac made a controlled, slicing motion with his right hand in a fist.

"She took out a small knife and cut off a single whisker."

"The instant the tiger left, she ran all the way back to the wise, old hermit," Mac resumes, "And brandishing the whisker, she shouted in delight, '_Look! _Here is your tiger whisker!' She handed it to the old man, who was cooking some rice over a burning fire, and said, "Now, please, tell me how I can help my husband.'"

The hazel-eyed CSI pauses for a moment.

"The wise hermit took the whisker from her … and threw it into the flames."

Danny's eyebrows shoot up. Whoa, okay, he hadn't anticipated that.

"She was horrified at what he'd done." Mac's eyes enlarge in mock dismay, and he raised and waved his hands in an enactment of the woman's distress. "'Why did you _do_ that!' she shrieked, 'It took me so _long_ to get the whisker for you!' The old man was completely unperturbed by her panic, and simply asked, 'Tell me, how did you obtain the whisker from the tiger?'"

"The question calmed her down and made her think, and she replied, 'I approached the tiger each day and spoke gently to it and treated it with kindness and love, and I did it everyday to earn its trust, to show the tiger that I cared for it and that I would never hurt it.' The wise, old man sat there stroking his beard, then said to her, 'If you could earn the trust of a wild animal as dangerous as a _tiger_ with nothing more than love and kindness … how much easier it will be, for you to reclaim the trust and affection of your husband, the man whom you love.'"

"And understanding the wisdom in the old hermit's words, she returned home, knowing now what to do to lead her husband out of his despair and regain the heart of her other half," Mac concludes, appearing very much like a wise, mature man himself.

Danny is unable to utter a word. It's a bizarre sensation, his chest close to bursting and yet, feeling like it's throttled by overwhelming emotion. He likes this Mac very much, this Mac who's compassionate and forgiving and so much like a father he never really had.

There's no way in hell now that he can deny Mac is certain about his relationship with Flack. Still, confessing to Mac was worth it, if only to know at least two of his friends have given him their blessings and support for a love he's had to cover up for so long.

It feels good. Liberating. Like a candle lit in what was once pure darkness.

And he comprehends the message within the message Mac has imparted to him.

"Thanks, Mac," Danny eventually says with warm eyes. "Kinda an irony to think of Flack as a tiger, though, since he's allergic to cats."

Mac snickers, his face crinkled in mirth. "Actually, I was thinking that he was the _soldier_, but whatever floats your boat."

Danny joins in the laughter. Yeah, he sure walked right into that one.

"Thanks for the ride. I appreciate it."

Mac nods. "I'll see you at work next week."

That immobilizes him in the mid-action of tugging on the car door handle, and he whips his head around and exclaims, "Next week? Whaddaya mean, _next week?_"

"Effective tomorrow, you're off for six days."

Mac's tone brooks no defiance.

Before Danny can sputter out a word, the older detective goes on to add, "_No buts_. It's about damn time you used _some _of your off days, and if I see you at the labs tomorrow, I'll _suspend_ you."

For a second, Danny actually believes the warning, then detects the humorous gleam in those hazel eyes. Geez, Mac, way to scare a guy.

And _six_ days off?

Hey, that didn't sound bad at all.

"_Awright_, next week," Danny grumbles outwardly. "But don't get all envious when I come back with a nice tan and lotsa stories a' how much _fun_ I had while you guys had to toil, 'kay?"

Mac really does come across as twenty years younger when he smiles. "Have a good night, Danny." The smile softened. "And good luck."

Danny nods in response and bids Mac farewell before sliding out of the car, shouldering his bag as he does. He ambles down the sidewalk a short distance to the entrance to his apartment building, and there's a spring to his step that lends him an air of confidence.

Something is blooming within him again, something he hasn't felt in a long while that seems a lot like hope.

As he opens the entrance door and goes inside, he contemplates on what Stella and Mac have conveyed to him in their dialogues and smiles to himself.

It's Stella who has lead him to the looming gates of Flack's heart.

But it's Mac, who has bestowed him with the keys to unlock them.

**( Oooo …... oooO )**

On the evening of the day Mac had driven him home, Danny stands in front of his bathroom sink and mirror, wearing just his boxers. He rubs a hand across his belly, lips puckered, envisioning himself in Flack's place.

What would he be like, if he had been the one who was caught in the explosion instead of Flack?

He stares at his abdomen in the mirror, picturing horrific scars that extend from one flank to another, and he swallows hard.

He'd be … enraged. Pissed off at the whole fucking world that he was the one who had to get blown up, of all people. Pissed off that people saw him at his lowest, weak and feeble and needing other people to assist him in doing simple crap like bathe and go to the toilet. Pissed off that his body isn't the way it used to be, that it's marred and ghastly and he can't eat big meals like before because some of his intestines' _gone_. Just like that.

And how would he feel about Flack seeing his body then?

He'd be … _terrified_.

Danny lifts his head to gaze at his reflection. He sees a man in his early thirties with shorn, brown hair and heavy-lidded, blue eyes. A prominent Italian nose he's inherited from his father, lips that aren't very full though not thin either, a light moustache and goatee shadowing his lower face. Broad shoulders and chest, muscular arms thanks to his frequent visits to the Y, a dark blue tattoo on his upper right arm and a flat, smooth stomach.

His body's far from perfect but it's the only one he has.

And yes, he'd be scared stiff to display himself to Flack should it be disfigured with a mass of scars, like the ones his friend and lover must have.

He unconsciously presses his palm hard against his tummy, a frown wrenching the ends of his lips downwards. Is _that _why Flack has been ignoring him and pushing him away? Because the guy thinks he'll find the scars disgusting or something?

It makes sense, it makes a _lot_ of sense.

Only problem is, it doesn't enlighten Danny why Flack is so resentful and _hostile_ towards him in the first place. Things aren't connecting somewhere. He's beginning to see the dots, just not all of them yet. He's … missing out on something.

_Damnit_.

He ponders the issue while he brushes his teeth and wipes his face with a damp cloth, and by the time he's sprawled in his bed, his brain's reeling from reiterating the same information again and again. He can't recollect doing anything to provoke Flack before the bombing occurred. If truth be told, Flack had been at his most accommodating and devoted towards him in the months preceding the incident.

He'd been a total wreck after what happened to his brother. He didn't just cry once that night, and it was pretty damn humiliating that he snapped in front of Mac, that once was _more_ than enough. No, his frigging body had to betray him and make him weep multiple times, all the way into the next morning in Flack's embrace, costing the guy a whole night's sleep.

And Flack never complained. Not even when he rambled on and on in the Godfather's voice about random childhood memories and Flack probably had no idea whatsoever what the hell he was talking about.

Flack never complained.

His eyes flicker shut, and he sees Flack standing in the hospital corridor, watching over him as he stares into the room where Louie's being treated by doctors and nurses in white coats and green scrubs. Flack is like a tower, tall and solid, a reliable presence in a sea of flitting people who are in a constant hurry and have no time to aid anyone.

Those large, blue eyes are gazing at him over Mac's shoulder as Flack speaks to the other CSI.

_We ain't goin' anywhere. _

And then, as Mac turns away, he sees Flack's lips move in two words that are meant solely for him.

_Trust me._

Danny rolls onto his side on the bed. It's too warm for a blanket, so he leaves it bunched up around his hips and legs. The faint noise of laughter drifts up from outside and through the window and into his ear, a sound tinted with melancholy due to his chain of thoughts. He remembers listening to the tinkle of a little child laughing as he waited for news of his brother's condition in the hospital foyer. Flack had rested a hand on his shoulder then, his lips unmoving but his eyes saying everything.

_Trust me. Let me bear your grief and halve it._

A severe pang within his heart strikes him out of the blue, an inner paroxysm so bad he curls up into a fetal position, grabbing at the left side of his chest. God, he misses Flack so much. He hasn't seen Flack for almost a week now, not since he walked out on the man.

Does Flack still want him?

Will Flack trust him and permit him to bear the man's sorrow too?

There's only one way Danny can find out.

Like the Chinese woman who deliberated over a plan to save her husband so long ago, he spends the night doing the same, thinking of all the ways to prove to Flack that he still loves him. That he'll be there till the end, no matter what may hinder their path.

"We ain't goin' anywhere, Don," he whispers into the night, wishing the winds will carry his declaration to his other half. "Trust me."

**( Oooo …... oooO )**

Flack is staring at him.

It's a major change from the guy disregarding him all this time, and it pleases Danny.

"Are you finished with that?" Danny asks in a placid manner, gesturing at Flack's half-eaten dinner of spaghetti and meatballs. He's a bit saddened that Flack's appetite is still far from its original black hole capacity but beggars can't be choosers.

Hell, he's rather happy there hasn't been a repeat performance of Flack tossing dinner around the kitchen. For a second, and _only_ a second, he wonders if Flack will do that again, maybe chuck the plate at his head the next time and split it open or something. The ridiculous notion is squelched in a flash. No, Flack isn't like that. Not even _this_ Flack.

There's a _vast_ difference between a man who's filled with hatred and enjoys hurting people, and a man filled with so much fear that it engulfs him and drives him to do things he doesn't intend.

Elephants dance in Danny's stomach when Flack doesn't react at first.

Then, Flack merely dips his head in a nod.

"Okay, I'll clean up," Danny says.

If he didn't know better, he'd swear Flack is staring harder at him now.

Danny carries their plates to the kitchen sink, and forks the remainder of Flack's meal into an empty container to be stored in the fridge. Flack _loves_ spaghetti and meatballs, he knows that very well. The last time he'd attempted to dispose of some leftover spaghetti, Flack had literally shaken him like a rag doll and elucidated with prodigious detail the cardinal sin of throwing out good spaghetti and meatballs and to never, _ever_ do it again.

Their bouts of lovemaking after that had appeased Danny enough to not bite Flack in the ass for it later. Figuratively, of course.

The kinky homicide detective would have enjoyed the real thing too much.

Danny chuckles to himself as he washes the dishes in the sink. Wow, it's been some time since he's fantasized about sex with Flack. He's amazed he hasn't gone off the deep end yet, in view of the fact that he hasn't had any in months and he's just fine and dandy with that. He hasn't even given a thought about pleasuring himself. All he's been thinking about is Flack, worrying about him, wanting to make sure he's alright, that he's safe and recovering.

_This is what love is_, a firm voice in his heart says, _putting somebody else's needs above yourself, and doing it because their happiness is your happiness too_.

It takes him a minute to become aware of Flack standing near him by the sink. The taller man is gazing at him with that particular look, the one full of bewilderment and anxiety that seems so alien on Flack's facial features. Flack's been staring at him like this on and off since yesterday, which also happened to be his first day off via Mac's orders.

Danny had been ready for ire and perhaps even violence when he came by Flack's apartment yesterday morning. What he hadn't been primed for, after letting himself in, was the astonishing _relief_ he saw on Flack's countenance.

Relief, because _he came back_.

The whole day afterwards, Danny felt as if he could take on the entire universe. What he'd seen in Flack's expression, despite its brevity, kept him going long after Flack became surly and quick-tempered and did the ignoring act.

Flack _wants_ him around. Which means the whole ignoring thing is a _sham_.

But why is Flack pushing him away when he actually wanted him around?

Danny's hoping, really hoping, that Flack will disclose the reason very soon.

There's always a reason for everything.

"Why are you doing this?" Flack asks gruffly. He's gripping the edge of the kitchen counter tight, doing that like it's all that is holding him back from blasting up like the bomb that nearly slaughtered him.

Danny knows Flack isn't referring to him washing the dishes.

He can hear the taller man's other tacit questions although they remain unspoken.

_Why did you come back? Why are you still here, with me? _

_Why haven't you abandoned me yet?_

He returns the frightened stare with a tender one, shrouding no secrets, baring his soul through his blue eyes. He considers murmuring sweet words and going off into some ode about why lovers do things for each other and then, he checks himself.

For such a question, there is no greater answer than the plain truth.

"Because, I love you."

His avowal has a visible and physical effect on Flack. The lanky detective, still ashen in complexion with dark circles around those beautiful eyes, stumbles back as if he's been kicked in the chest.

Danny is unable to prevent hot warmth from springing to his eyes. He's never seen Flack appear so shaken before. All because of three words.

Three words, that he's uttered for the very first time to Flack's handsome face.

It's evident that Flack hardly expected them at all.

The homicide detective, dressed in a loose, long-sleeved black sweater and jeans, staggers another step or two backwards to prop himself up against one of the kitchen cupboards. He hasn't taken his eyes off Danny the entire time. His lower lip trembles, and under the warm-hued ceiling light, it seems as if those big eyes are glistening too.

"It's true. I do love you, you know," Danny says with all sincerity. "I always will. Never doubt that."

The resonance of water in the sink flowing over plates and eating utensils fades away.

Noises of the city wafting in through the windows wane into nothing.

Time itself grates to a halt.

"I … but you -"

Flack cuts short his stuttering by pursing his lips taut.

Danny has to bite his lower lip hard to restrain himself from rushing up to the disconcerted man and hug him and beg him to speak his mind. To demolish this wall that still separates them.

_Time. Give him time._

A half minute ticks past with them facing each other in silence, Flack's gaze darting here and there nervously and Danny maintaining slow breaths and praying his heart isn't going to leap straight out of his chest. Is this it? Is Flack finally going to open up to him tonight?

_Please, _he whispers without a sound, _please don't be afraid of me_.

Flack abruptly takes a step towards him, one hand rising, and he stays where he is, looking into Flack's wide, anxious eyes, returning reassurance with his own blue ones.

_Talk to me, Don. I'm here._

"I … I'm gonna watch some TV."

Flack's hand slowly withdraws.

Danny nods, and veils his slight disappointment with an encouraging smile. "Okay. I'll join ya in a little while."

He turns back to the sink, recommencing his washing of the dishes. Listens to Flack shuffling away, hesitant steps that stop at the kitchen entry. He doesn't twist around to glance at Flack, though he knows the other man is standing there observing him. It should agitate him, this constant staring that's similar to being studied under a microscope, except it doesn't. Not at all.

He never appreciated how often Flack stared at him and drank in his presence as if he was the elixir of life itself, until the guy no longer did so.

Flack shambles away to the living room when Danny starts drying up the plates and pots he'd used to cook the bolognaise sauce and spaghetti. The television comes on, and random sounds emanate from it as the homicide detective switches channels for something interesting to watch. Once Danny's done with the drying up, he stacks up the dining paraphernalia into two piles and brings them over to the cupboard where Flack stows his plates, bowls and the likes.

His heart's beating at a frenetic pace, not from unease or anything like that.

He said the three words to Flack.

And the world didn't end.

No, instead, it feels as if his world … has just _begun._

He heaves in a deep breath, shutting his eyes for a moment.

God, why didn't anyone tell him how _amazing_ it'd feel to say it to someone, especially someone he loved with all his soul, someone who deserved to hear it ages ago? Why had it taken a horrendous event like a _bombing_ for him to tell Flack those three words? He's such a _fool_ sometimes.

There's a smooth, rectangular aperture in the wall next to the cabinet that looks into the living room from the kitchen. He peeks through it from time to time as he shelves the utensils back where they belong, seeing Flack sitting on his black sofa, eyes honed in on the television set.

Flack's sitting in a pose that's much more comfortable, slouching with his long legs stretched out, one arm at his side and the other over his belly. Like the alteration from disregard to persistent staring, Danny also considers this an improvement.

The fourth time Danny glances through the opening, Flack is looking towards the kitchen. Towards him.

Their gazes lock across the space.

Danny's lips shift into a closed-lip smile on their own volition. There's something different about the expression on his lover's face, he notices, and his breath snags the instant the insight comes to him.

The fear is gone.

And as their connection prolongs, the ends of Flack's dark pink lips arch upwards in a diminutive, bashful smile.

It's a dazzling sight, one that widens Danny's smile into a jubilant, toothy grin. His grin broadens even more when Flack flushes and goes back to watching the television, the shy smile having never left his visage.

Danny begins to whistle softly while he tidies away the last couple of forks and spoons, his face crinkled in elation.

Mr. B-O-M-B, _zero_.

Love and kindness, _four_.

It's taking time, but he's winning a streak and that's all he needs to know.

**( Oooo …... oooO )**

On Danny's fourth day off, he and Flack are in the homicide detective's living room watching television together like they've been doing for the last three days. They sit side by side with an arm's gap between them. Danny's squeezing a pillow to his chest, legs spread and straightened out. Flack's sitting more upright than Danny is, a hand on top of his tummy over his white jersey.

Danny notes this from the corner of his eyes.

"You okay?" he asks mellifluously, glancing upwards at Flack.

Flack seems to not have heard his query at first, staring at the television screen with impassive eyes. Then, Flack blinked and bowed his head to look at Danny.

"Hmm? Yeah, I'm okay."

Flack's reply is said in an equally mellow manner.

They aim their eyes at the screen once more. Of all the things they're watching, it's a Discovery channel documentary on the subject of peculiar sea creatures that live thousands of feet below sea level. There's a reddish-brown squid whizzing around on the screen, and Danny thinks it's absolutely captivating, the way its blue bioluminescence glows in the dark water, the way it's turning itself inside out like it's in an elegant ballet.

Thing is, this isn't the kind of show Flack's ever interested in, which is sorta suggesting to Danny that Flack's got something substantial on his mind.

Forty minutes of more fascinating and sometimes ugly-looking sea critters zoom by. The documentary is so enthralling that by the end of it, Danny's half-questioning himself why he hadn't delved into marine biology instead so he could see all those extraordinary organisms for real.

Suddenly, the television screen goes blank.

Flack has the remote control in his hand, his thumb on the red power button.

_Finally_, a voice in Danny's mind utters, _finally, he's going to talk to me_.

The quiet hovering over them is deafening.

One, two, three minutes, and Danny's doubting the situation now. Huh, maybe Flack's just tired and wants to nap or -

"Mac was the first person I saw when I woke up," Flack says. He's still staring at the television screen, except his mind's in another world and time.

Danny pushes himself up, bending his legs and drawing his knees up to his chest on the couch. He puts the pillow he'd been holding aside. His intuition's telling him this conversation's going to be a profound one. Either that, or it's going to be one that rips him apart.

"The funny thing is, when I opened my eyes and everythin' was hazy … I kinda thought it was _you_ at first. I remembered … somebody holdin' my hand and talkin' to me, and … I thought it was you."

Danny's eyes shut on their own accord. What he would give now, to go back in time and replace Mac in that hospital room.

"He was smilin' at me, and askin' me how I was feelin' and … I dunno. I guess I musta asked him where you were."

Flack's eyes become shuttered.

"He told me, you weren't there 'cause ya drove Lindsay home."

Danny's eyes snaps open and wide at the words and the dejection in them. He gapes at the other man, an iceberg the size of the moon crushing his insides.

Oh, fuck.

He'd forgotten. He'd _completely_ forgotten about driving Lindsay back to her apartment that night, recalling only his necessity to get away before he broke down in front of his peers, his solitary misery in the rain at Battery Park.

_Oh, fuck_.

Flack's known about it _all this time_.

"The moment she started workin' at the labs, I knew I was done for," Flack murmurs, his mien frighteningly vacant. "The way you were lookin' at her, the way all the lab techs were goin' on 'bout how you were both makin' _googly eyes _at each other … I knew that was it -"

Whatever is left of Danny's composure dissipates straight away.

"C'mon, Don! I was just _curious_ 'bout the newbie! _Everybody_ on the team was curious 'bout her!" he objects in outrage.

_What? _Flack's been thinking he had some - some _thing_ for Lindsay since _then?_

"I just knew it, ya know?" Flack continues, as if Danny hadn't said a word. "People say all things gotta come to an end sooner or later, right? I just … I just didn't think it'd happen to _me_. I thought, maybe I'd finally found somethin' _good_, ya know? Maybe I'd finally found somebody who understands me and knows me, _really_ knows me, somebody who'll -"

Flack bites his lower lip. He won't look in Danny's direction, not even when Danny inches his way across the couch towards him. He's too deep in his cogitations to realize how likewise the agony is for Danny to hear all this.

"I figured it was just a matter of time. I mean, I was in the deep end from the start. A _guy_, a _homicide detective _whose _legendary_ _old man _would rather _die_ than have a son who's in _love _with _another_ _guy? _Yeah, I was fucked from the start … but I didn't care 'bout that."

There's emotion showing on Flack's pale face, at last. It's one that causes something to ache intolerably in Danny's chest.

"I didn't care 'bout that. All I cared 'bout was that _I'd found somebody_. And … and it was all goin' to be taken away from me. By this … this new _CSI_ from _Montana _who doesn't know a _thing_ 'bout you, doesn't know a _thing_ 'bout this city. _My_ city."

Those sad, blue eyes are looking at him, arresting him to the spot, cleaving him in two.

"_Mine_."

I _am_ yours, Danny yearns to tell him, _I am_, why can't you _see_ that?

Something massive jams his throat, so huge he can barely breathe.

"I thought I could ignore all the gossip. At the time, you were always comin' over to my place, or me to yours, and you were the _same_, you didn't act any different to me so I thought things were gonna be okay … And then people started talkin' more and more. I mean, _hell_, even _Hammerback_ told me ya had a crush on her."

Danny rubs at his forehead, his brows furrowed in an intense scowl. As nice a guy Hammerback is, he's going to have a _long_ talk with the ME when he's sorted things out here.

"One day, I went over to the labs to look for Stella to get an update on a case, a couple a' days before the explosion took place … and I overheard some techs makin' _bets_ on how long it'd be before you jumped into bed with Lindsay. And ya know their longest estimated time? A _month_."

It's hard, very hard, to see Flack through brimming eyes.

A month. A freaking _month_.

Which means … Flack's assuming he's been fucking Lindsay all this while.

_Behind his back_.

"I dunno. _I dunno _… I just felt like stupidest bastard in the world. A _selfish prick_. I mean, what kinda right did I have to chain ya to me, ya know? I can't help how I feel 'bout you, and you can't help how ya feel 'bout other people and …" Flack inhales, a long, shuddering breath. "S'not right to tie people down when they're not happy with ya, s'not right, I _know_."

Danny's dying to touch Flack, touch his hand, stroke his face, _anything_. Flack's rambling, and he only rambles like this when he's really, _really_ upset, and Danny's scared. One touch can be all it takes to push Flack into a very bad place.

"So I'm thinkin', _okay_, Danny's gonna be happier with her, and that's what counts to me. I'm thinkin', okay, if ya really _love_ somethin' or somebody, ya gotta let them _go_, right? If they come _back_, they're yours for life. But see, there's just one problem I have with that …"

Streaks of moisture are streaming down Flack's cheeks, highlighted by the sunlight spilling in through the windows.

"I don't know how to let you go, Danny."

It isn't the tears stemming from the taller man's eyes that trigger Danny's own to fall. It is the heartrending smile that is filled only with love for Danny that does so.

"You think I slept with Lindsay on the night you were hospitalized. After you almost _died_. You _think_ I _slept_ with her. _After you almost died_," he croaks.

Flack is staring at him now, glistening eyes gigantic and doubtful.

"You think I've been sleeping with her _after_ that too, don't you?" Danny rears up onto his knees on the cushions, a fire blazing hotter and hotter by the second within him, devastating him. "_What_, ya think I've been _fuckin'_ her behind yer _back_, while I come here and _play nice _with you so that you won't _suspect_ anythin'? _Huh? _Is _that_ what ya think, Don?!"

"I -"

"_No_, Don, that's _not_ what I've been doin'!" He whips his spectacles off his face, tosses it behind him onto the pillow and swipes at his wet face before saying, "Okay, _yeah_, I _did_ drive Lindsay back to her apartment at night, but I didn't sleep with her. I didn't even go into the _damn_ _building_. _Shit_, I didn't even get out of the _car_, and you know _why? _Because all I could think 'bout was _you_, and how I couldn't be there with you because _Mac_ wanted to be there and I couldn't stay without _snappin'_ like a _twig_ and cry _worse_ than I did when _Louie got beaten up!_"

He's so angry at Flack, at himself, that he jostles the shell-shocked man back against the couch, straddling Flack's lap and getting right into Flack's face.

"And _no_, I have _not_ been sleepin' with Lindsay behind yer back. I never even once _thought_ of doin' _anythin'_ close to that. And ya know _why_, Don? Because it's _you_ I love, you stupid bastard. It's _you_ I wanna have sex with, _you_ I wanna make love to, _you_. _I love you_, _damnit_, so what do I hafta _do_ to make you _understand_ that?!"

His harsh breaths echo in the ensuing silence. He's not sure, he's not quite sure but as he blinks numerous times to clear his vision, he's seeing something wondrous in Flack's eyes.

Faith.

Faith in _them_, once more.

Flack swallows visibly, then mumbles in a tiny voice, "I look like fuckin' Frankenstein from the chest down."

"And what?" Danny thrusts his arms out on either side of Flack's head and grips the back of the sofa, shifting his head forward till their foreheads are almost touching. "Ya think that's gonna make me stop _lovin' _you? Ya think I'm that _shallow?_ That I'm gonna _run_ the instant somethin' bad happens to you?"

Flack licks his lower lip, and then, shakes his head from side to side.

"Then ya don't hafta worry 'bout me _ever_ lovin' you less 'cause a' this, ya _hear_ me? I meant what I said, Don. I love you, I always will, and I'll always be here." He lets out a growl and punches the cushion next to Flack's shoulder in his dissatisfaction. "_God_, I can't _believe_ you actually thought I was _cheatin' _on you with _Lindsay! _I'm so _pissed off _at you, I could _kick_ yer ass to kingdom come and _back!_"

They stare into each other's eyes, noses touching, breaths mingling. Flack's thighs are firm and hot between his legs, and it feels so good to have a part of his best friend and lover touching him there again, to just feel Flack _there_ with him.

And then, a familiar, large hand is stroking his bristly cheek.

"Hi. I missed you."

When his heart registers Flack's words, Danny feels his visage crumpling in contradictory emotions of euphoria and retreating melancholy, and he doesn't give a damn. Nothing in the universe is able to deter him from enfolding his arms around Flack's broad shoulders in a squashing hug or keep him from burying his damp face into Flack's long, warm neck.

"Oh God, _I've missed you_," he whispers, his voice cracked and high.

Flack's heartbeat is steady and robust against his face, so different from the imperceptible, irregular pulsation he'd hardly sensed that day when Flack's guts were out for all the world to see. The familiar rhythm grounds him, floors him.

Flack's returned.

He'd let Flack go after things got so bad for them … and Flack came back.

Flack's returned, and now, the man is his.

For life.

"I'm so sorry I've been such an asshole," he hears Flack rasp. "It's just … it's just the thought of you and - It drove me crazy."

"S'okay."

Danny sits up, easing their embrace just enough that he can look Flack in the man's beautiful, blue eyes.

"S'okay," he whispers a second time into Flack's parted lips, and the rest of his sentence is garbled in an open-mouthed kiss, a tentative kiss that quickly turns insatiable and mind-blowing and oh so _good_. He's kissing Flack so hard that he's bruising his lips against his lover's teeth, but he doesn't give a damn about that either, only that Flack's so hot and tastes so exquisite and feels so fucking _incredible_ that he wants to weep again.

Large hands slide under the hem of his white tank top, caressing his lower back and up to his shoulder blades, pressing him tight against Flack's heaving chest. He breaks their kiss just briefly enough to suck in a fast breath, and releases a high-pitched moan of pleasure into Flack's wide mouth when their groins grind together. Flack's as hard as he is, and Flack's moaning and panting as much as he is, and oh God, he's missed Flack _so_ much, he's missed this so much, he's missed _them_ so much, _ImissedusImissedusImissedus_ -

The next muffled whimper Flack lets out paralyzes Danny on the spot.

"Oh, shit, Don, I'm so sorry, I forgot -"

He immediately disengages himself from the taller detective by clambering to his knees and off Flack's lap, and he would have gotten to his feet if Flack hadn't seized his forearms, stopping him.

"Don't be," Flack replies in a very fluent, tender voice. "Ya didn't hurt me, babe."

Danny's heart skips a beat at the familiar endearment.

"Are ya sure? I heard you -"

"I'm _okay_, really." Flack gives him a heartening smile. "Just a twinge, that's all. Happens once in a while when I twist my body 'round too much. So are ya gonna sit down on my lap again and kiss me or do I hafta resort to kissin' myself instead?"

Danny's laugh resonates in the air. It's an uplifting sound, a pleasing sound that sets Flack off and makes him cackle too.

Just a dozen seconds later, Flack's mouth is stretching broadly in a cavernous yawn. The eye-squinting yawn carries on for so long, it cracks Danny up all over again. He parks himself back onto Flack's lap and affectionately strokes the other man's cheek with the back of his fingers.

"Uh, Don? Yawnin' is _not _a new trend in makin' out, 'kay?" he says between snickers.

Flack blinks tears out of his eyes, appearing exactly like a young boy who's stayed up long past his bedtime. "M'sorry, Dan. S'only three in the afternoon and I already feel sleepy."

"S'alright, it's the meds makin' ya sleepy. You're not up to full health yet either."

"Yeah … the doc says no heavy action allowed for another _month_ too," Flack mumbles with an unhappy twist of his lips, then looks down at the vicinity of his groin. "Least I know things down _there_ are in workin' order."

Danny cackles, his teeth gleaming. "Yeah, the part that _counts_, right?"

Flack simply grins at him, the pallor of his mien instantly dispelled by it.

Danny stands up despite Flack clinging onto his arms. He plucks up his glasses from the couch, puts them on and glances at the square-shaped clock hanging on the wall nearby. Indeed, it's a little past three. Perfect time for a nap before dinner.

"C'mon, _up_ and at 'em."

Flack quietly does as he's told and allows Danny to lead him to the bedroom by the hand while rubbing at his eyes.

"Whatcha wanna eat tonight?" Danny asks, as Flack sits down on the side of the bed.

"I dunno, we still have them pastrami sandwiches in the fridge?"

"Uh hmm. I can heat them up in the oven later, if ya want. All crispy like ya like 'em."

"Okay. That'll be nice."

Danny smiles at Flack, but the smile falters when he realizes Flack has closed up once more, countenance deceptively deadpan. Uh oh, there's something going on in the guy's mind again.

"Danny?"

"Yeah?" He upholds a poker face of his own, waiting to see what Flack has to say or do.

"I, uh …"

Flack merely sits where he is for a minute, and out of the blue, pulls his jersey up over his head, taking it off. He's not wearing another shirt beneath it, and Danny sees the bandages around Flack's tummy for the first time. They're a pale beige color, fastened around Flack's body by small, metal clips. He frowns a bit as it hits him that, at this point in time, Flack shouldn't even require such extreme bandaging anymore. Staples and sutures are usually removed after ten days at most. Wounds always begin to heal after an operation and even though total healing takes six months to complete, it's been over a whole month since his friend was hospitalized.

_If your belly got shredded up like mince meat, you'd do anything to not look at it either_, Danny's brain rationalizes.

It's surreal, how it looks like Flack's physical being hasn't changed a bit since the last time he saw his lover in the nude. Flack's shoulders and chest and arms seem the same, all that pale, supple skin covering just the right amount of muscle mass. The light dusting of hair on Flack's chest is still there. But below the man's chest …

"I, _uhm_. I need some help changin' the bandages. Do ya mind helpin' me?" Flack says in a rush.

Danny stares at him in puzzlement. Huh? Help him change the bandages? Flack's been doing it himself all the while, why would he need -

There's a click in his head, like a key fitting into its lock.

Oh.

_Ohhh_.

His smile flares back up in full force.

"'_Course _I don't mind."

As Flack begins to remove the bandages around his midriff, Danny goes into the bathroom and searches for fresh bandages and the antiseptic ointment in the cabinet by the sink. His hands are trembling. He didn't think Flack would show him the scarring so soon. What if he's not ready to see them after all? What if he upsets Flack with the wrong reaction?

He gives himself a fierce stare in the bathroom mirror. _Stop worrying_, he berates himself. Whatever happens, they'll see it through _together_.

And with that positive thought in mind, he walked back into the bedroom.

The bandages are in a mound on the bed next to Flack. He's looking at anything except Danny, and Danny doesn't say anything about it. He senses Flack's edginess like a tangible presence in the room. He slowly approaches the seated man, kneeling before Flack without a word. There's a humongous gauze pad taped across Flack's abdomen, the only thing between Danny and what Flack's feared to reveal to him the past weeks.

The tips of his fingers graze the edge of the tape.

He glances up to see Flack's expression.

There's absolutely none.

"Don, are you -"

"_Please_."

Flack's mien is devoid of any emotion, a flat wall to Danny's vision, but the taller man's hands, clawing into the edge of the bed, tells Danny everything.

"Okay. I'm gonna strip it off now," Danny murmurs.

The gauze pad is carefully and gently peeled away and lifted off.

Danny has seen his fair share of gruesome sights in his years of being a CSI, everything ranging from decapitated people to people fried crunchy by electricity to people getting stabbed dozens of times in the face and chest.

And still, none of them prepare him for the scars that mar Flack's once unblemished belly. It isn't the scars themselves that hurt him deep inside. They're not as bad as he'd presumed at all; one long one, the most noticeable of the lot, extends from one side to the other in a jagged pattern while smaller, fainter ones meander outwards at various points along the main scar. With time, they will all fade to a lighter shade and blend better with Flack's skin. The surgeon had done a very adept job at stitching up the wound.

No, it is the knowledge that it's the man he loves who must bear them for the rest of his life that rends his heart.

"Does it still hurt?" he asks, swallowing once. His fingers float above the longest scar, tracing the air.

A tense couple of seconds pass before Flack whispers, "No."

Flack's fingers are digging so deep into the mattress that his knuckles are white.

Danny feels a shudder travel through his lover when he finally strokes the bumpy disfigurement, exerting only the slightest pressure. It's harder than Flack's skin, with ridges here and there where the massive laceration was severe. It's different, neither ugly nor aesthetic, but he will become accustomed to it in time. It's just another new addition to Flack's body, another part to love as much as he loves the rest of the man.

He knows words alone won't convince Flack of his acceptance of the scars, and he proves it with a stoop of his head down to the other man's stomach, leaving butterfly kisses along the darker skin, healing what science and medicine could not.

There is a sound, akin to a sob, that raises Danny's head.

In a silence where a million words are exchanged, Danny stood up and took a weeping Flack into his embrace, letting Flack release all his fear and sadness with noiseless sobs. And he smiles into Flack's cheek, knowing that the final barrier that stood between them is gone forever.

"It's okay, Don, I'm here … _I'm here_."

Later, Flack is lying on the bed on his back with the blanket up to his waist. He isn't wearing his white jersey, and there's a fresh gauze pad covering his tummy. Flack had decided to not hide his scars anymore, but Danny didn't want to take any chances yet and had rubbed some antiseptic cream on the majority of them before redressing them.

There's vivid sunshine cascading onto their lower legs through the bedroom windows, saturating Flack's light blue blanket and Danny's faded jeans with intense color. Danny's on his side next to Flack, scrutinizing every inch of the homicide detective's face.

"Ya don't have to stay here with me," Flack mumbles. His eyes are almost closed in drowsiness.

Danny's amused by the statement. It's like Flack telling him that they aren't meant for each other, and how crazy is that?

"S'okay," he answers with a tender smile. "Feel like nappin' too."

"Okay."

Flack's eyelids flutter shut.

Danny continues to gaze at the slumbering man's features long into the afternoon, powerless to look away. He reaches out and caresses Flack's cheek and lower jaw, reveling in the feel of stubbly sensation of the man's beard growing out.

_You're okay_, he thinks to himself,_ I'm okay._

_We're okay._

A cool breeze blows in through an open gap in the window, and once it rustles his hair and brushes his face, he is reminded of the night he slept alone, alone but wiser in heart and mind thanks to Mac and Stella. He shifts closer to Flack, putting an arm around his lover and humming in pleasure when Flack unconsciously rolls into his arms.

And as New York city bustles outside with its typical hubbub, all is tranquil inside as Danny murmurs into Flack's temple, "We ain't goin' anywhere, trust me."

**Fin.**


End file.
